Romola

The most exotic of George Eliot’s works, Romola recounts the story of the famous religious leader Savonarola in Florence at the time of Machiavelli and the Medicis. Of all her novels, this was the author’s favourite.

No other Eliot novel was illustrated in its first edition. Romola, however, was sought by George Smith for serialization in the prestigious illustrated Cornhill Magazine. Smith commissioned illustrations for the novel from the rising young artist Frederick Leighton, who had st...